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Global News Podcast
Zelensky: Ukraine needs a 'dignified peace'
00:25:51
Kyiv reacts to Trump's new peace plan, which proposes major Ukrainian concessions
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Keith Adams
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.
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BBC Announcer
It's the cosiest time of year on Britbox.
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Keith Adams
Very cosy.
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BBC Announcer
That means basking in the ambiance. You know, the bodies turned up.
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Keith Adams
How often do people get murdered around here?
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BBC Announcer
Unboxing the unexpected.
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Tom Bateman
Well, we know it wasn't an accident.
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BBC Announcer
And starting new traditions.
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Mariam Galadima
I see you telling me to behave myself.
- [00:21]
Keith Adams
Oh, shut up.
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BBC Announcer
Stream Britbox original series based on best selling novels including Lynley and a new season of Karen Perry.
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Keith Adams
Smashy smashy breaky breaky.
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BBC Announcer
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Keith Adams
This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Keith Adams and in the early hours of Friday 21st November, these are our main stories. President Zelensky says he'll discuss the US proposed peace plan to end the Ukraine war with President Trump in the coming days. A diplomatic row between the US and South Africa has intensified ahead of the G20 summit this weekend. Schools have been closed in Nigeria's Western Kwara state after an attack by gunmen. Also in this podcast, the official advice on vaccines changes in the us but it's controversial.
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BBC Announcer
To have this on a CDC website is actually pretty shocking. We're going to see a drop in vaccination rates which will cost lives.
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Keith Adams
And Spain's Attorney general has been found guilty of leaking confidential information. In the last edition of the podcast, we reported that Donald Trump had introduced a new 28 point plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. The details of that plan have not been officially confirmed, but it's believed to call for significant concessions from Ukraine, including limits on the size of its military and the surrender of some territory to Moscow. President Zelensky has now seen the proposal. He said he'll speak to Donald Trump in the coming days, but in his nightly address, he said that Ukraine's priorities had not changed.
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Tom Bateman
Since the first days of the war. We have taken one extremely simple position.
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Mariam Galadima
Ukraine needs peace and a real peace.
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Tom Bateman
One that will not be broken by a third invasion. A dignified peace so that the conditions respect and our independence, our sovereignty and the dignity of the Ukrainian people. We must ensure these very conditions.
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Keith Adams
Russia occupies about 20% of Ukrainian territory and President Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out giving up any land as part of a deal. So what is the US Strategy here? That's a question I put to the BBC State Department correspondent Tom Bateman, as.
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Tom Bateman
This has been reported in terms of a 28 point plan that appears to have been stitched together following meetings between Mr. Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, also including Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, and Vladimir Putin's envoy, a man called Kirill Dmitriev, who was in Miami with Steve Wyckoff about three weeks ago where they had quite extensive discussions that this plan is now the latest terms of reference, if you like, that the White House is putting together. The White House spokeswoman, Caroline Levitt, confirmed that there is a plan and that President Trump supported it, although she said that it was ongoing and it's still being worked on. And she was pressed quite hard on the way in which this plan appears to be heavily tilted towards Moscow. But she did also say that President Trump had become increasingly frustrated with both countries. But it appears as though they're going to try to put more pressure on the Ukrainians to shift on what have always been President Zelenskyy and the Europeans red lines.
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Keith Adams
The noises that we've been getting out of the US Administration. Though Trump seemed to be more critical of Putin recently. Was all that noise meaningless?
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Tom Bateman
Well, I think you have to remember that Mr. Trump has ebbed and flowed throughout the course of the last 11 months on all of this. And there has never been this very tough concessions demanded of Russia that there have been at various points of Ukraine. There's never been the fundamental breakdown in relations between Washington and Moscow that there has been actually between Washington and Kyiv over the course of all this. We saw a moment a few weeks ago where President Trump had a phone call with Vladimir Putin. He said after that that they would hold a summit in Budapest, in Hungary. This would be the second such summit after one they had in Alaska in August. It was then a phone call between Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, in which it appeared that things then broke down. And my sense from that was the Americans were putting their foot down because they felt the Russians wouldn't move and they couldn't make progress in terms of getting any concessions from the Russ. So there was sort of a block put on any high level discussions between Washington and Russia at that point. And now Suddenly we have a shift back. What it says to me is Mr. Trump is not very interested in detail. We know that he tends to give his envoys a strategic objective or a goal, a deliverable. And in this one, it's just he wants an end to the war. And so I think we're seeing a kind of repetition which involves Steve Wyckoff and a similar pattern we've had for quite a while where Mr. Wyckoff tends to listen to the Russian demands, then think there progress, brief them to the president, and Mr. Trump says, okay, you've got my backing. And then they go to the Ukrainians and realize it's not going to work. But the question is now, is there enough frustration and irritation as it was put, frustration in terms of the way the White House has phrased it, that Mr. Trump is now just going to finally try and sort of ram this onto the Ukrainians. But that would be seen as an absolute disaster by the Europeans because they will see this as conceding the principle that you can just invade another country, not just get to keep the territory that you have occupied, but also take even.
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Keith Adams
What about Mr. Zelenskyy then? Does he have any options now, do you think? Is there any wiggle room for Ukraine?
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Tom Bateman
Well, the options are to keep fighting a war. What the Europeans have been trying to do at times, I think privately aghast at the Trump administration's approach is to try to shore up the Ukrainians in terms of weapons supply, because that is no longer coming directly from the Americans. So they've come up with this system of NATO buying American weapons and then feeding them to the Ukrainians. But you know, they've been losing. And that, of course, is the great risk and the calculation that Mr. Zelensky has to take. Plus he's got these political problems at the moment with the corruption scandal that's erupted around him in Ukraine. If they lose American backing, they have a fundamental problem. And that's something that Mr. Zelensky, I think has always understood. But this may be now a moment where they are left with little choice. But I think we have to see how the negotiations are going to play out over the next few days. And you know, the White House were stressing that this is still fluid and that they're talking to both sides.
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Keith Adams
That was Tom Bateman talking to me. Well, one of the low points in the relationship between the US And Ukraine came at the start of the year at that extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office when President Trump called President Zelensky disrespectful and told him he had no cards to play in the peace talks. Three months later, in a moment described by some as a repeat of the Zelenskyy meeting, Mr. Trump hosted the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House. And once again, he aired his grievances in front of the this time claiming black South Africans were killing large numbers of white farmers. Do allow them to take land.
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Miami Jones
Nobody can tell you when they take.
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Keith Adams
The land, they kill the white farmer. And when they kill the white farmer.
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Guy Hedgeko
Nothing happens to them.
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Mariam Galadima
No, there is quite nothing happens to them. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people.
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Miami Jones
Majority of them are black people.
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Mariam Galadima
And we have now been utilizing the.
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Keith Adams
Farmers are not black. Well, the diplomatic row between the two countries has now intensified. Ahead of the G20 summit in Johannesburg this weekend, President Ramaphosa is refusing to hand over the presidency of the G20 to the US Charge d' Affaires as planned. Our BBC Africa Correspondent, Miami Jones, told my colleague Ankur Desai. What's going on?
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Miami Jones
The US had said a couple of weeks ago that it would not be sending any representatives to this weekend's leaders summit for the G20, which is its gathering of the world's biggest economies. But at the very last minute on Thursday evening, during a press conference, a joint press conference between the EU and South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa said he'd actually received a letter from the US suggesting that they might want to engage in some way with the summit. Now, it wasn't clear exactly in what way. It turns out that the US was proposing sending a local representative. It hasn't got an ambassador in South Africa. So he was going to send a charge. Daffair and seven other diplomatic staff members, and they said that it would be taking part in any of the discussions of the G20. They'd just be there for the handover ceremony because the US is the next president of the G20. South Africa responded to this initially by saying that, yes, they would try and accommodate this request. But then a clip surfaced showing a spokesperson for the White House accusing President Cyril Maphosa of running his mouth. And that is a direct quote when he mentioned this. And so as a response, South Africa has now said that they will not be handing over the presidency of the G20 to a charged affair. So it's not really clear what happens next.
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Keith Adams
Okay.
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And this is also part of a wider spat which took place a few months ago when Cyril Ramposa visited Donald Trump in the White House in The.
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Oval Office in front of the world's.
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Miami Jones
Media relations between the two countries have really been deteriorating pretty fast over the past year. The US Used to be one of South Africa's main Western partners, but over the last year, they've really fallen out. And that's because President Donald Trump has repeated widely discredited claims that, that there is a genocide of South Africa's white minority. He's offered them asylum. They're the only minority group who is entitled to asylum currently in the US and he's also expelled South Africa's ambassador. He's cut aid, he's imposed tariffs. South Africa, in response, has tried to remain diplomatic, tried to say that, you know, they're inviting the US to come over to South Africa and to realize that there isn't a white genocide here. But. But the recent events suggest that this relationship is not getting much better.
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Keith Adams
And just also outline the optics of.
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Why it's so important, this G20 summit, but also the handover process as well.
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Miami Jones
So the G20 was set up over 20 years ago, and its presidency rotates every year. And this is the first time that an African country is getting this presidency. So it's seen as hugely significant. And so South Africa was really hoping that it could use this opportunity to champion things like cheaper loans for African countries. They wanted to champion things like climate change financing, push forward ways for which African countries could get more bang for their buck for their critical minerals. But instead, they found themselves talking increasingly about their fraught relationships with the US and you can sense growing frustration on the part of Pretoria with the status quo. And this evening's statement seems to indicate that they may be reaching their limit.
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Keith Adams
President Trump has been accused of provoking political violence after a social media post in which he appeared to suggest that some demonstration Democrat members of Congress should face the death penalty for comments they made in an online video. Our North America editor Sarah Smith reports.
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Sarah Smith
Seditious behavior punishable by death. President Trump wrote on social media in response to a call from Democrat politicians urging the US Military to disobey orders that are unlawful.
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Keith Adams
Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.
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BBC Announcer
You can refuse illegal orders.
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Keith Adams
You must refuse illegal orders.
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Sarah Smith
Six Democrats who are all military veterans released a video saying that some of the orders coming from the Trump administration are threats to the Constitution.
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Keith Adams
This administration is pitting our uniformed military.
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BBC Announcer
And intelligence community professionals against American citizens. Americans trust their military, but that trust is at risk.
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Sarah Smith
They have recently proposed legislation in Congress aimed at limiting the president's deployment of the National Guard in major cities like Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago. Donald Trump posted on social media saying this is really bad and dangerous to our country and in capital letters, seditious behavior from traitors, Lock them up question mark followed by another post saying that behaviour is punishable by death. Democrat leaders in Congress have said the president must delete these posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed.
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Keith Adams
Sarah Smith in Washington the White House press secretary Caroline Levitt was asked about President Trump's post. Here's what she said. Just to be clear, does the president.
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Tom Bateman
Want to execute members of Congress?
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BBC Announcer
Ms. No, let's be clear about what.
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Sarah Smith
The president is responding to because many in this room want to talk about the president's response, but not what brought.
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BBC Announcer
The president to responding in this way.
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Sarah Smith
You have sitting members of the United States Congress who conspired together to orchestrate.
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BBC Announcer
A video message to members of the.
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Sarah Smith
United States military, to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus encouraging them to defy the President's lawful orders.
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Keith Adams
Caroline Levitt Schools are closed in Nigeria's western Kwara state and five other areas after gunmen attacked a church on Tuesday. On Monday, more than 20 girls were abducted from a boarding school in Kebbi State to the north. The heightened concerns over INSECUR in Nigeria come amid claims by President Trump that Christians are being persecuted there. The BBC's Chris Iwaka has been monitoring the story.
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Mariam Galadima
Monday, around 3am gunmen in large numbers invaded Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School. They fired sporadic shots, went to the dormitory and abducted 25 students. Staff and security guards tried to stop them. They were shot. One died instantly, the other at the hospital. A resident described what happened. They went straight to the school security master's house. The youngest among them was the one who shot him. He shot him on the chest. Then they proceeded to the girl's hostel and they shot the elderly man guarding the girl's hostel. I've never seen anything like this. Why would someone kidnap girls as young as 11? Griefs hang heavy over the home of Mariam Galadima not her real name, to protect her identity, her family has suffered multiple tragedy. One that painfully captures the human cost of the worsening insecurity gripping rural communities in Nigeria.
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BBC Announcer
Three devastating things happened to my family. First they killed my father. He is the security guard manning the school gate. I met him in his pool of blood. Then they took my daughter and also my granddaughter.
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Mariam Galadima
Mariam's 13 year old daughter Mero and 12 year old granddaughter Rabe, names changed for their safety, were both taken. Families are in great despair desperate for information about their daughters. Two of the abducted girls managed to escape, but 23 others are still in captivity. On social Media, the hashtag BringBackKebigirls are now trending, a stark reminder of the nearly 300 Chibok schoolgirls abducted over 10 years ago. Nearly 100 of them remain missing. Barely 24 hours after the Kirby schoolgirls kidnap, gunmen struck again in central Nigeria. They stormed a Christ Apostolic church during an evening service, shooting some people and rounding up worshippers. A video clip, believed to be from the church's livestream cameras, have circulated widely online. A member of the church tells the BBC, two people were killed and several others injured. It was around 6pm we started hearing gunshots. Our security guard tried to repel them, but they got into the church, opened fire and abducted some people. There were about 30 gunmen. The church assault has triggered frustration and anger across Nigeria. Many have voiced outrage on social media over what they describe as unrelenting wave of insecurity that continues to batter rural communities, schools and transport routes.
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Keith Adams
That was Chris Iwaka. Still to come. Who needs AI?
- [17:28]
Kayleigh Davies
We don't get the same sort of feeling from tapping on our smartphone as we do as the click clack of a typewriter and all these fantastic old things.
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Keith Adams
Why old tech is now big money.
- [17:46]
BBC Announcer
This is the story of the one As a custodial supervisor at a high school, he knows that during cold and flu season, germs spread fast. It's why he partners with Granger to stay fully stocked on the products and supplies he needs, from tissues to disinfectants to floor scrubbers, all so that he can help students, staff and teachers stay healthy and focused. Call 1-800-granger. Click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [18:15]
Keith Adams
Hello, it's Ray Winstone. I'm here to tell you about my podcast on BBC Radio 4, History's Toughest Heroes. I got stories about the pioneers, the rebels, the outcasts who define tough. And that was the first time that anybody ever ran a car up the that fast with no tires on. It almost feels like your eyeballs are going to come out of your head. Tough enough for you? Subscribe to History's Toughest Heroes wherever you get your podcast.
- [18:46]
BBC Announcer
When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha chings from every channel right in one spot and turn Real time report into big time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today.
- [19:20]
Keith Adams
An edit on the website of the US Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, the cdc, has sparked concern that Donald Trump's Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is spreading vaccine misinformation through government channels. The public health agency's site previously said that studies showed there was no link between vaccines and developing autism. This has changed to say that studies haven't ruled it out. Sources at the CDC told the BBC's US partner CBS News that the edits were ordered by political appointees at the U.S. department of Health. Dr. Fiona Havers worked for the CDC, leading the team that collects COVID 19 and other infectious diseases data. She resigned in June in protest of Mr. Kennedy's order to change vaccine recommendations. Dr. Havers expressed her fears about the CDC's new language.
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BBC Announcer
To have this on a CDC website is actually pretty shocking. What we do know is that routine immunizations are safe, they're effective and they're the best tools we have for keeping both adults and children healthy. And RFK Jr forcing CDC to put this kind of information on the website is going to further scare parents, scare people, and we're going to see a drop in vaccination rates which will cost lives.
- [20:37]
Keith Adams
Our North America correspondent Sean Dilley says that one Republican isn't comfortable with what's happened.
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Interestingly, there is still the heading, despite its new position, which flies in the face of all medical and scientific studies on the topic. But it still says there is no link between autism, the vaccines and the website explains that's because there was a deal done between essentially Bill Cassidy, he's a medical doctor, he's a senator from Louisiana and he heads Senate's health committee. And he has tweeted afterwards about the change in the position, saying that any statement to the contrary in relation to vaccines being essentially not linked actively puts the lives of Americans in essentially at greater health risk.
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And this revised language is quite strong, isn't it? It's quite confusing, accusing health authorities of ignoring some research and suggesting a reassessment.
- [21:26]
Yeah, it kind of echoes very closely the Health secretary Rober Kennedy Jr's words in the past. He said he has no issues with vaccines, but he's certainly a skeptic. That can't really be denied. So, you know, It's a complete 180 on where they were before. So broadly speaking, the major study that would sort of have backed up the new position was from 1998 in relation to a link between vaccines and autism, but that was withdrawn after it was discredited. So the CDC had previously relied on another study, that is it performed itself from 2013, showing that there was no link. The World Health Organization says that there is no link. And one of the spokespeople sort of questioning the change in advice had pointed to 40 separate bits of research showing there is no link. And obviously Bill Cassidy, that medical doctor from the Senate Health Committee, absolutely sort of stark language where he's saying that it directly puts the health of Americans at risk.
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Shown daily. Spain's Attorney General has been found guilty of leaking confidential information about the boyfriend of a leading politician. Alvaro Garcia Ortiz has been banned from his post for two years and fined $8,000. The case has divided Spain along political lines. Our correspondent Guy Hedgeko filed this report from Madrid.
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Guy Hedgeko
This is unprecedented in that an Attorney General had never gone on trial before, let alone been convicted. So. So that is significant. But Alvaro Garcia Ortiz was accused of leaking misinformation regarding the tax status of Alberto Gonzalez Amador, the boyfriend of a senior Conservative Madrid politician, Isabel Diaz Ayuso. And throughout the trial, Alvaro Garcia Ortiz denied that he had been the source of a leak to the press regarding this tax case, and yet he has been found guilty of it. He insisted that there was no evidence directly linking him to this. All the evidence was circumstantial and yet he has been convicted. So this is seen as a significant case partly because of what it means for the Attorney General having to stand out, but obviously it also affects the Prime Minister as well. And Pedro Sanchez has been under quite a lot of pressure already in recent months, partly because of other judicial cases against people close to him. His brother is going on trial for allegedly influence peddling and there are a number of other investigations affecting him and his party as well. So this is very bad news for the Prime Minister.
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Keith Adams
That was Guy Hedgeko. The British government is changing the rules for migrants who come to the UK legally, and it means that some people could have to wait for 20 years to apply for permanent status in the country. The new rules will apply to migrants already in the UK as well as those who arrive in the future. Our political correspondent Harry Farley has the details.
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Harry Farley
The basic qualifying period will increase from five years to 10, and new, tougher conditions will be required, including paying tax in the form of national insurance for at least three years, having a clean criminal record and speaking English to a high standard. That 10 year wait could be reduced under these proposals. If, for example, you work at a senior level. In public services like the nhs, you're on a global talent visa or if you pay higher rates of tax. But the 10 years could also be delayed by up to another 10 years if migrants have claimed benefits. The Home Secretary said the system would change settlement from being quick and automatic to one that requires contribution and integration.
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BBC Announcer
We have achieved cohesion because different communities have integrated, retaining their distinction within a single plurination whole. This makes demands of those already here to remain open to new arrivals. But more than that, it demands something of those arriving. To settle in this country forever is not a right, but a privilege, and it must be earned.
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Harry Farley
Crucially, this will apply not just those arriving in future, but those already here who don't yet have settled status. There will be questions around fairness, particularly for those who came to the UK under the Low Skilled Health and Care visa after 2021 and expected to qualify for permanent status as soon as next year. They are singled out and will have to wait 15 years for the chance to apply for settlement. But Ms. Mahmood's argument is one of necessity that divisions in the country have been fuelled by a pace and scale of migration that is putting pressure on communities and it needs tackling.
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Keith Adams
Harry Farley reporting. Now for a touch of nostalgia. In today's increasingly digital world, there seems to be a growing interest in items from a simpler analog age. Think record players, typewriters, film cameras, old computers, early digital watches and some of those first chunky mobile phones. They're all fetching good money online and at auction. Kayleigh Davies, a collectible specialist from the online auction house Auction Net, has been telling us about the appeal of yesterday's gadgets.
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Kayleigh Davies
It's a trend we're seeing across all sorts of collectibles. As you mentioned, we're seeing people want to collect vinyl records. People are even turning back to VHS tapes, because we're in this age, this digital age, and we don't get the same sort of feeling from tapping on our smartphone as we do as the click clack of a typewriter and all these fantastic old things. Your bog standard typewriter isn't going to make a great deal of money, but there are some really interesting, quirky curiosities, alternate layouts of keyboards and unusual models. We sold one last year for £29,000 because it's just an unusual model and people want it gives you a glimpse of an alternate reality where we'd never had the QWERTY keyboard and we have these bizarre layouts and it's this intersection between collectors who love tech collectors who love design and collectors who love scientific instruments. So although it sounds quite niche, there's quite a broad collective market for that kind of thing.
- [27:41]
Keith Adams
Kaylee Davies I mean, that old stuff, I have to agree. It just looks a lot cooler, doesn't it? And that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast late. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcastbc.co.uk you can also find us on X BBC World Service using the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Masoud Ibrahim Hil and produced by Peter Coffin and Wendy Urquhart. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Keith Adams. Until the next time. Goodbye.